Smith: Comments rained on Sonoma, Flint at the White House water summit

To David Rabbitt’s ears, the two areas of the nation mentioned the most at last week’s White House summit on water were Sonoma County and Flint, Mich.

The comments about Sonoma were much nicer.

Rabbitt, the Sonoma County supervisor who represents the county on a regional water-reuse consortium, and fellow Supervisor Efren Carrillo, current chairman of the Sonoma County Water Agency, were among just 150 invitees to the White House gathering.

That in itself was a good reflection on the county. “But,” said Rabbitt, “I think the best thing about the entire event was that not once but on four separate occasions by four separate individuals, Sonoma County got a shout-out.”

Rabbitt said the first to laud the county’s achievements in the areas of conserving and improving its water resources and restoring aquatic habitat was Kathryn Sullivan, the former astronaut who now directs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Rabbitt said the recognition of Sonoma County’s water-related innovations and partnerships by people high up in D.C. can only help when the county goes looking for federal dollars to sustain and expand those efforts.

The supervisor came home from D.C. beaming at the reception that Sonoma received and feeling the pain of Michigan authorities singled out repeatedly at the White House summit for their contributions to the lead-contamination crisis in Flint.